Health of Raiders’ DTs a concern

There’s still three full days of recovery to go, but one of the Raiders biggest concerns heading in to Sunday’s game against the Houston Texans will be if they’ll be healthy enough to keep running back Arian Foster and their cutback running system under control.
Although John Henderson suited up and went out to practice Wednesday, he spent the end of the warm-up and drill portion of practice being worked on by trainers and was officially listed as not having practiced.

Henderson didn’t practice at all last week, and foot injuries become more of an issue when supporting some 335-plus pounds.

Also not practicing was defensive tackle Richard Seymour, which was no surprise given his admission Monday that he was affected by his hamstring pull against Arizona and was lacking explosion and power.

Seymour talked openly of trying to determine the best course of action _ weighing the help he can give against the risk of making it worse and having a condition which could limit him for the entire season.

It appears the best-case scenario would be to have Henderson and Seymour play at less than 100 percent against a team which desperately needs defensive tackles to both hold their ground and break through a zone blocking chain which will look to get Foster free on the backside.

Or perhaps one or the other doesn’t play, meaning more work for Tommy Kelly, Desmond Bryant and Jay Alford.

At worst, both Henderson and Seymour are unavailable or can’t finish the game against an offensive system which tends to be at its best late in the game with the lead when the defense is tiring.

— Cable has coached zone blocking teams since working at Atlanta with Alex Gibbs, and talked about the best way for a defense to deal with it.

“They’re able to distort it. If they let it get moving, think of pulling on one end of the rope, and it all moves in the same direction,’’ Cable said. “If we allow that to happen it gets going on you, and they’ve done that a few times this year already. What you have to do is disrupt or distort that rope, make it uneven, if you will, and if you can do that, you take away those seams and those run lanes.’’

— A long injury list which Cable said for the most part was not overly serious.

Cable said Schilens “is making good progress. I’d say in the last five or six days, it’s been very positive.’’

— Alex Joseph, a first-year linebacker out of Temple, was added to the practice squad. He takes the place of Stevie Brown, who was promoted to the 53-man roster for the second time in two weeks prior to the Arizona game and may actually stay there awhile this time.

— Cable doesn’t seem overly concerned about a Raiders red zone defense which has given up touchdowns seven times in eight possessions.

Arizona did very little offensively against the Raiders but was 2-for-2 in close, making it look easy both times.

“We’ve been very productive and for three years we’ve been one of the very best red-zone defenses in football,’’ Cable said.“The other day, it was the simple fact of looking up a receiver in zone at a linebacker spot. Just a very fundamental thing down there.’’

— Cable was predictably (and wisely) tight-lipped when asked if more duty for Michael Bush would mean more use of Darren McFadden as a receiver.

McFadden has 73 rushes and 10 receptions through three games, with Bush playing only a small role in Week 3.

“You never know,’’ Cable said.

— Houston wide receiver Andre Johnson said by conference call he expected to play against the Raiders (he has a high ankle sprain) and is aware Nnamdi Asomugha shadowed and shut down Larry Fitzgerald against Arizona.

“He’s a great player, arguably the best cornerback in the game,’’ Johnson said. “He doesn’t really have many balls thrown his way. It’s not shocking to see that.’’

Johnson said Asomugha hasn’t shadowed him in the past.

When the Raiders beat the Texas 27-16 in Week 16, Johnson came in with 103 receptions for 1,408 yards and didn’t catch a pass until well into the second half.

Johnson got some coverage from Asomugha that day, and quite a bit from Chris Johnson, who missed last week’s game with an ankle injury and is now the nickel back when healthy instead of the starter.

Jerry McDonald - NFL Writer

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LTR where did you see this quote?
——————————————
LTR Says:
September 30th, 2010 at 12:36 pm
Thought this was an interesting quote:

Then he gained 105 against Arizona, making a strong impression on Cardinals defensive tackle Darnell Dockett.

“I have great respect for that man,” Dockett said after the game. “That [expletive] runs hard. I mean harder than anybody I’ve ever seen.”

mistic1

# Drexl Says:
September 30th, 2010 at 12:33 pm

Isn’t it common knowledge Al ran Gruden off?
Isn’t trading someone the same thing as running them off?
Why is this even an argument?
=============================================================== This isnt an arguement. post # 537 Of course gruden wanting more money and final say over the roster and staff caused an impass between he and davis. Gruden would have walked. Calling it force out when you dont get what you want in a negotiation….maybe.

Weather we call it a force out by Davis, or a failed power play by gruden is simply a matter of semantics at this point. besides why talk about people that arent here?

DKnight007

Well…I’m betting plenty of $$$ on the Texans this weekend and I’m hoping I jinx it and the Raiders can pull off the win!

Nnamdi21

Gruden mortgaged the future of this team with old vets and then bailed when the tab came due.

Same deal in Tampa.

Thats his M.O. and franlly one that won’t work again anytime soon.

Players are different now. When they are rejected by toehr teams and done they ARE done.

Not like back in the day when you could get solid play out of wiley old vets.

Nnamdi21

I think the Raiders can beat the Texans if they can control the clock, keep the Texans high powered O off the field and score.

mistic1

Nnamdi21 Says:
September 30th, 2010 at 12:55 pm

Gruden mortgaged the future of this team with old vets and then bailed when the tab came due.

Same deal in Tampa.
===============================================================
Initially this is one reason why davis and gruden clicked. But when Davis says “damn these cats are old” that means they are really old.

mistic1

The raiders either need 10-14 points off turn overs or they will need a special teams score in order to win. Without our dtackles healthy i can see the texan running game wearing us down. Also im afraid grads has used up all of his get out of jail free passes when it comes to turn overs. You know the texans are running tip drills and telling defenders to be ready because the ball is coming their way.

No Mas Diamante

Hey Banana – Raids 33 – Texans 17… And thanks for all your work…

Just Fire Baby

Also im afraid grads has used up all of his get out of jail free passes when it comes to turn overs. You know the texans are running tip drills and telling defenders to be ready because the ball is coming their way.

**********************************

You don’t think teams do this every week?

The guy has NEVER thrown more than one INT in a start for the Silver and Black. Enough with this “coulda-woulda-shoulda” mess. Campbell threw one in the STL game that hit a DB between the numbers, and it was dropped. You know why??

The guy has NEVER thrown more than one INT in a start for the Silver and Black. Enough with this “coulda-woulda-shoulda” mess. Campbell threw one in the STL game that hit a DB between the numbers, and it was dropped. You know why??

Yeah, but not four or five in a game. Not ones right in their hands. I mean, do you really see drops like the one Joe Burnett dropped at the end of the Steeler game “every week”? Plus he got away with throwing it straight up into the air when Murphy came down with it in that game. It’s really weird. The guy is charmed or something. I will say this. He’s gotten away with it against the Bengals, Steelers, Rams and Cards, so there’s nothing that says he won’t continue to do so. Doubt it though.